FEATURES
2
The Empty Quarter Spilling across four Arab nations, the world's
largest sand desert has been defined as much by Bedouin tradition as
by geography. Now oil and politics are changing the definition.
BY DONOVAN WEBSTER PHOTOGRAPHS BY GEORGE STEINMETZ
32
A Wreck Revealed It took 20 minutes for the German liner
Steuben to sink with 4,500 souls after Russian torpedoes split its hull
in 1945. It took 60 years to find the ship's remains in the Baltic Sea.
BY MARCIN JAMKOWSKI
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTOPH GERIGK
52
Lights, Camera, India For sheer pizzazz-and number of
pictures produced-India's over-the-top film industry, known as
Bollywood, easily out-hollywoods Hollywood.
BY SUKETU MEHTA
PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM ALBERT ALLARD
70 Great Gray Owls Winged lords of northern forests, the big
raptors fly noiselessly, hunt in light or dark, and can hear a field
mouse stir under the snow.
BY LYNNE WARREN
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL J. COX
88
Eccentric Salton Sea Celebrities used to trail their toes in
the brine, but few people dare take a dip today. The good fortune of
California's offbeat inland sea may finally be evaporating.
BY ]OEL K. BOURNE, ]R.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY GERD LUDWIG
108 Bronze Age Cult Beneath a palace in Syria, archaeologists have
found evidence that ancient kings once dined with the dead.
BY KAREN E. LANGE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MANOOCHER
124 ZipUSA: 19886 There are people in Wilmington, Delaware,
who want to give you all the credit you deserve-and maybe more.
BY MARY McPEAK
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID McLAIN
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor
OnScreen & Online
Behind the Scenes
Visions of Earth
Forum
Geographica
My Seven
On Assignment
Who Knew?
Final Edit
Do It Yourself
Flashback
THE COVER
A great gray owl homes in on
prey in Manitoba, Canada.
BY DANIEL J. COX
® Cover printed on recycled-content paper
ON THE WEBSITE
nationalgeographic.com/magazine
SIGHTS & SOUNDS Experience
the remote Empty Quarter.
NAZI GHOST SHIP Explore the
underwater wreckage.
BOLLYWOOD Watch the mak
ing of a celluloid love story.
AFRICA MEGAFLYOVER Follow
explorer Mike Fay's epic journey.
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